One area that Edmonton Oilers fans can expect Craig MacTavish to address this summer is depth at centre. That was an Achilles heel in 2013, especially when multiple injuries hit the ranks. Oilers had only three pivots capable of handling top nine minutes, while the rest couldn’t even tread water at #4.

When all were available, most nights Ralph Krueger ran with 1) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 2) Sam Gagner 3) Shawn Horcoff, but the fourth line was a hodge podge. In addition to Ryan Smyth’s 16 or so games as an emergency centre, no fewer than four listed pivots played between 10 and 26 games for the Oil. Among them Eric Belanger, Jerred Smithson, Anton Lander, and Chris VandeVelde played 58 games in all, contributed a combined 1 goal, 4 assists, and -8. That pretty much fits my definition of a “non-factor”, and I’m guessing Craig MacTavish likely feels the same.

Of all of them only Nugent-Hopkins appears truly secure in his place with the team at present. Horcoff seemingly has one foot out the door judging by MacTavish’s comments of yesterday, while Gagner is a restricted free agent. The rest are bit players in the grand scheme of things, with none close to being able to fill a top nine role at this stage of their respective careers.

One option is the unrestricted free agent market. The last time the Oilers went that route to fill a hole down the middle, the apple of Steve Tambellini’s eye was Belanger, previously of the Phoenix Coyotes. Phoenix GM Don Maloney wasted no time in filling the void left by the veteran’s departure, signing an experienced but younger pivot in Boyd Gordon. Indeed, Gordon had been touted by some in the Oilogosphere as a possible fit on the Oilers at that time; instead it was the Coyotes who wound up with the younger, cheaper, and more productive option.

Gordon also signed for a shorter term. His two-year pact with the Coyotes is expiring and the 29-year-old is eligible to again hit the open market this summer. Is he a possible fit for the Oilers this time around?

Let’s start by looking at one of the most powerful new analytical tools, the “Vollman Sledgehammer” a.k.a. Player Usage Charts. While its developer, Rob Vollman, is quick to point out that it’s not a be-all-and-end-all, that it tells us more about role than results, PUC does tell us plenty about the former while providing valuable context for the latter. As Vollman mentioned in an interview with The Lowdown With Lowetide the other day, it can also help pick out unexpected names from the masses as players who have earned the trust of their coach (at least among the options at his disposal).

One such player is Boyd Gordon, whose name fairly leapt off this PUC of all NHL centres even before I highlighted it and suppressed the rest:

Top left of this grid is where you find shutdown players, guys who take on top opponents and frequently do so in their own end of the ice. They include unobtainables like should-be Selke candidate David Backes or young workhorse Sean Couturier, not to mention missed opportunities like Vernon Fiddler or (sigh) Kyle Brodziak. Even against those guys, Gordon stands out for having one of the most purely shutdown roles in the NHL.

The question remains, how did he deal with it? PUC offers just a hint of that, in the form of colour coding within a player’s bubble representing shots outcomes while he is on the ice. Blue is good, and even a very pale blue such as sported by Gordon is very good when considered in the context of his role. So that’s a great indicator, but let’s dig deeper:

Vitals: Gordon is 29, so nicely in the middle of his career. At 6’0, 200 pounds he is not small but no monster either and certainly not an overtly physical player. The native of Unity, SK, played his junior hockey in Red Deer, where he won the Memorial Cup in 2001. He was drafted in the first round, 17th overall, by Washington Capitals in 2002, and stayed with the Capitals organization until 2011 before signing in Phoenix.

Boxcars: In 2013, Gordon played the full 48 games, posting fairly typical numbers of 4-10-14, even plus-minus. Over his 486-game career, he has posted per-82 rates of 6-14-20, +1. Given the weak production numbers, break-even seems a good outcome, especially in the context of that PUC. Besides, these days the NHL rewards “break-even” with showers of Bettman Points, so players who can deliver that over the long term have more value than they should.

Physical play: Gordon has exceptionally low penalty minute totals, just 100 in his entire career, equating to about one minor penalty every ten games. He is not a hitter, ranking 12th and 13th among Coyotes forwards the past two seasons while ranking 5th in the group in total ice time each year.

Defensive/two-way play: Gordon has comfortably led all Coyotes forwards in blocked shots both of his years in Phoenix. He also has posted exemplary takeaway:giveaway numbers of 28:10 and 18:7 those two seasons, ranking among the team leaders both times.

Shots metrics: Virtually break-even across the board in 2013. At even strength Gordon had a raw Corsi of +1.6 and a Relative Corsi of +0.6. Shots on goal were almost 50/50 at 29.7 for, 29.6 against every 60 minutes. 2.04 goals scored per 60, 1.93 against. A PDO of 1.003. Flat lines everywhere, with the notable exception of his way off-centre position on that PUC up top. He’s breaking even in tough minutes. His 11 even-strength points in the short season ranked him 9th on his team and about 230th league-wide, third line production but no more.

Faceoffs: Gordon is an ace on the dot, having finished 8th among NHL faceoff leaders in both his seasons in Phoenix, at 56.8% and 57.3%. Dating back to his time in Washington the right-hander has been north of 55% six seasons in a row.

Penalty killing: A key part of Gordon’s game. He was second among forwards in the entire NHL in shorthanded ice time, and fourth in average time at 2:51 per game in 2013, after finishing in the top six in the league in both categories his first year under Dave Tippett. He has a particular aptitude on shorthanded faceoffs, normally less than a break-even proposition, where he has maintained a 57% success rate through over 600 draws the past three seasons.

So where might a player like this fit on the Oilers? This PUC of all Coyotes and Oilers forwards highlights Gordon’s relative usage compared to all of the guys who took a turn at pivot for the Oilers in 2013.

One of these things is not like the others. It is, however, worth noting that Gordon didn’t do this in a vacuum, but as part of an effective checking line with David Moss and Rob Klinkhammer. The Oilers had no forwards at any position who Ralph Krueger was able to deploy in such a defence-first role against top-flight competition, so to suggest that any one player, even a solid one like Boyd Gordon, would solve the problem on his own is likely misguided.

A mid-career player like Gordon would fill a different gap on the Oil. Compare his birth year of 1983 to these two clusters on the Oilers depth chart:

Other than VandeVelde, an emergency call-up who is nobody’s idea of a long-term fix, the Oilers didn’t have any pivots between the ages of 24 and 33. It’s great to have youth, veterans have their place too, but a bridge between the two would be nice. The paucity of prime-of-career players has been an issue on the Oilers roster for far too long, no more so than at the critical centre position. Be it Boyd Gordon or somebody else, the organization would be well-served to find an experienced hand who is better than even money not to break down physically over the course of the long season.

It’s hard to put an exact value on a player like Boyd Gordon, and very important to identify both what he is and what he isn’t. No arguing that he has delivered the goods for his $1.325 MM cap hit in Phoenix, but with his limited offensive output the threshold price point for a “value contract” is not enormous. His worth is almost entirely on the defensive side of the equation: the big-picture stat Goals Versus Threshold (GVT) determined Gordon’s contributions over the past twoseasons as +1.0 offensively and +9.0 defensively, while Point Shares has an ever starker offence/defence split at +0.1 and +2.4 respectively over that same span. My own “canary in the coal mine” stat, career special teams production, shows Gordon with 6 shorthanded goals and 13 points, without ever scoring a single powerplay goal (0-2-2) during his decade in the NHL. He might be a good candidate to replace Horcoff on the checking line, but Krueger would have to look elsewhere to handle the low slot on the powerplay.

Make no mistake, though, this is a player who will add situational value to whatever team is able to obtain his services next season. The Coyotes have first dibs, and may well make a move to lock Gordon up in the coming month. If not, he’ll be one of the more interesting options on the open market come July 5.

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